I am a bitch. This comes as a bit of a revelation to me. Generally in day to day work I keep my cool. I explain to people why they need to do something and the benefits to them. If they don’t get it quite right I’m nice, constructive and help them improve. I am usually the good cop. In my current job I’ve only had one full on strop (I blame PMT). But when it comes to design it turns out that I can tell it like is.

In terms …

Hello to you all on another snow covered day in Durham. However the great thaw has started. Today it’s a balmy 4 oC, rooftops and cars are starting to emerge. But before I bore you to death with another blog on snow I realise I haven’t yet written my blog post on the Kreativ Blogger Award which Katie McCullough nominated me for just before Christmas:

“I nominate Helen because I’ve never seen such an eclectic bunch of posts on one blog. You name it she’s got it; politics, writing, photography, lifestyle, …

I have to admit that I am quite disappointed with my attitude these past few days. I’ve been all doom and gloom about the snow and missed out on really appreciating it for the relatively short time it is here. I can pinpoint the time I got fed up to when I waited almost an hour and a half for a bus that never came. This was last Thursday, the coldest day of the year. It wasn’t even the fault of the snow. It was the temperature. But that was …

Unless the predictions are wildly off, this Thursday will see three weeks of snow in Durham. Although I’ve been away for half that time I have been assured (moaned at) by plenty of people that the snow hasn’t disappeared from the ground throughout this time. When I returned on New Years Eve it did look like it might be making an attempt to thaw, but I woke on Sunday morning to a new thick blanket of soft snow. And it is proper powdery snow. The small amounts of snow I’ve …

Today’s ‘Five…‘ is photography. At the end of 2008 I bought a DSLR off one of my very best friends, @pirateboots, who decided I would make better use of it than she would. I added a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens to my kit earlier this year and with the help of @GraemeWatson have developed (excuse the pun!) my skill and love of photography.
Narrowing it down to my five favourite images has been tough. It’s nice to have so many images that I’m proud of. Those that didn’t make it can …

I am an excitable person but tonight has been almost too exciting! And I thought I would share my buzz as I’m too excited to go to sleep.
It was always going to be a fantastic night as it’s the Strictly Come Dancing final. I’m just a bit obsessed with Strictly! In week one I wanted Chris to be out as early as possible, I wouldn’t have believed it if you would have told me I’d be voting for him multiple times in the final. Chris went from novice to being …

It is a beautiful snowy day and as I finished work yesterday I decided to go on a wander with my camera this morning. I love snow! Snow at Christmas is even better!!!

I’ve been wittering on about writing for a while so I thought it was time for a change of media. Animation and visual effects to be precise. Why? Because that is what I studied at Bournemouth University and achieved a 2.1 BA (Hons) in just over five years ago. And because recently I found this video and I thought I should write a blog about it all.

Back in 1996 when I was almost fourteen I went to see Toy Story at the cinema. I sat there and had a wondrous …

Doctor Who at Dalton Park coincided nicely with my brother-in-laws birthday as we’re all big fans. Even my three year old niece thinks Cybermen (or “cidermen” as they are sometimes referred to) are brilliant. So today we headed along to see Daleks, a Cyberman, the Ood and Brannigan, as well as other costume items on display. It was great!
It was followed by heading back to my sisters for a marathon Doctor Who DVD session. Six episodes of series four, a birthday present we all enjoyed!
A day full of Doctor Who …

On account that after two days in York both my feet and brain are asleep I thought I would do another photo blog with a taster of the images I caught in York Minster today.
Sadly, as with Durham Cathedral (but without the excuse of a bad back), I didn’t feel I got nearly as much as I should have done from this glorious cathedral. It didn’t help that I forgot to bring my tripod, meaning I missed out on quite a few shots in darker parts of the minster. Once …

I’ve finally got around to updating my Flickr Photostream and I thought I’d use todays blog to give you a sneak peak.
Flickr is another thing in the realm of “social networking” that it took me a while to get to grips with (see my post RSS… WTF!) but now I love it for showing off the best of my photography. I find that with my Nikon D40 I’m now taking hundreds of photos but getting some fantastic results, sometimes completely by accident! For example at Lucy & Dave’s Wedding I …

In what is becoming my usual style, I injured myself at the worst moment yesterday. That was about twenty minutes in to the photography evening at Durham Cathedral. Whilst I tried to hobble about for a bit, in the end I gave in. My concentration on composition was fuzzy and the frustration at being able to bend or move to get the photographs I wanted was just too much. Thankfully the Cathedral has an abundance of hard benches to sit on, perfect for minimizing pain whilst watching others snap away.
Before …

I wanted to share a couple of pictures I took on my iPhone on the way home from work today. The second picture captures the Old Fulling Mill (Durham University Museum of Archeology) with the reflection of Durham Cathedral in the River Wear.